It is easy for people to abuse authority when they want to - decide to - abuse authority. But further, such cases are not an "abuse of authority." They are an abuse of a human being. And quite honestly, having been in such positions of authority with vulnerable human beings, I cannot - internally - conceive of such a desire.

Lord Acton of course famously said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But the Anglo-Saxons had a slightly different take, expressed in the maxim: Man de■ swa he by■ ■onne he mot swa he wile. "A man does as he is, when he may do as he wills."

Josh Reyer

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,
Th'assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge...
- Chaucer